Probably not. Before you modify your marketing
campaigns, you should spend some time optimizing your
site for conversions.

Before you go off and start running A/B tests, take a
look at the 30 quick tips to help you with your
conversion rates:

30 quick conversion tips

1.Never start an A/B test
without running an A/A test – don’t assume your
A/B testing software is accurate. Run an A/A test to
ensure the accuracy of the software solution you are
using.

2. Don’t take words for granted –
one word can drastically decrease or increase your
conversions. Words like “free” or “trial” can increase
or decrease your conversion rate.

3. Data, not opinions, should influence tests
– never run tests based on what you want. Run tests
based off what your visitors say they like or dislike.
Opinions typically lead to failing tests, which means
you will lose money.

4. Patience is a virtue – even if
your testing software shows statistical significance,
don’t stop a test unless you have at least 100
conversions on the winning variation. When tests are
under 100 conversions, the results can drastically
change.

5. Color has meaning – don’t take
color for granted as different colors mean different
things. Just look how one simple color affected
click-through rates by 21%.

6. Some people don’t read – text
works great for some sites, while video may work better
for others. You’ll have to figure out which one your
audience prefers. Before you go off and create a video,
however, you’ll have to create a script first.

8. Don’t take your reputation for granted
– some people are worried about entering their credit
card online, especially with unfamiliar or brand new
sites. Consider testing trust elements such as the
TRUSTe badge or the BBB seal.

9. Macro conversions are better than micro
conversions – it doesn’t matter if you increase
click-through from one step to another. All that matters
is if more people buy from you. Focus on the big picture
when testing instead of trying to maximize how many
people move onto the next step.

10. Social proof isn’t always the best proof– you would think that social proof helps boost
conversion rates, but it doesn’t always work that way.

11. Don’t assume what works for one company
will work for you – just because someone like
37 Signals reveals how one change boosted their
conversion rate by 200% doesn’t mean that change will
work for you.

12. Conversion optimization doesn’t stop with
the front end – from upsells and downsells to
even cancellations, you can use conversion optimization
to increase your average sell price and decrease churn.
You just have to get creative.

13. The best increases come from drastic
changes – after awhile, small tweaks won’t do
much for your conversion rate. Drastic changes will move
your bottom line. Don’t be afraid to get a bit creative
and try something radically different.

14. Higher conversion rates don’t mean more
money – sometimes having a decrease in
conversion rate can make you more money. If you double
the price of your product, but your conversion rate goes
down by 20%… you still make more money by roughly 60%.
Optimize for revenue and not conversions.

15. Mondays aren’t Tuesdays – your
Monday visitors may not be the same as your Tuesday or
even Saturday visitors. Run your tests for at least 7
days as visitor behavior can change over time.

16. It’s all about results – you
want to see the results, but your visitors want to see
proof of your results too. Test adding case studies and
testimonials as they can help validate your company to
visitors.

17. Don’t worry about bounce rates –
when I used to do consulting on A/B testing, companies
would focus on decreasing bounce rates, but sometimes
they increased. It doesn’t matter what happens to your
bounce rates as long as your conversion rates go up.
Ignore vanity metrics like bounce rates. They may not
actually affect your revenue.

18. The best experience is a custom
experience – when running A/B tests, make sure
you run separate tests for your mobile and desktop
visitors. The experience on a mobile device shouldn’t be
the same as on a laptop.

20. Don’t make people think – don’t
assume your users know what they are doing or what they
want. Test giving people buttons to click instead of
open-ended form fields. The Obama Administration boosted
conversion rates by 5% through this one simple tactic.

21. Customize your user experience –
the best call-to-action buttons aren’t generic ones like
“free trial” or “buy now”; they are the ones related to
your product or service.

22. Images are powerful – a picture
is worth a 1,000 conversions. Not only was Highrise able
to boost conversion rate by including images of people,
but they found that certain images convert better. Using
a picture of someone who is too good-looking or a male
versus a female may affect conversion rates.

24. Multivariate tests are bad luck
– I’ve run dozens of multivariate tests. Every time you
add up the increases of each variation, the total
increase never adds up to being the same as what the
multivariate test shows. For this reason, I prefer
running A/B tests over multivariate tests.

25. Clarity trumps persuasion –
answering basic questions like “where am I?” or “what
does this site do?” typically works better than
persuasive content that sells. In an ideal world, you
should be using both, but make sure you don’t trick
people into converting as that causes cancellations and
refunds.

26. Focus, focus, focus – each page
should have one goal in mind. Pages with one strong
message typically convert better than pages that try to
accomplish multiple things. For this reason, it’s worth
creating landing pages.

27. Testing shouldn’t stop with your site
– you should use A/B testing principles with everything
you do on the web. From testing your ad design and copy
to testing which profile image on Twitter gets you more
followers, everything can be tested.

28. There is money in ugliness –
just because a website is ugly, it doesn’t mean it
doesn’t convert well. You can learn a lot from ugly
websites… especially the ones that make billions of
dollars.

29. A/B testing doesn’t hurt SEO – a
lot of people are afraid of running A/B tests because
they are worried what it will do to their rankings. As
long as you follow Google’s guidelines, you will be
fine.

30. Minimize friction – don’t make
users do things they don’t need to do. For example,
don’t collect unnecessary form fields or ask people to
verify their credit card address when processing
companies don’t require it. Test a version of your site
with as few friction-creating elements as possible.

Conclusion

No matter where your traffic is coming from, there is
a way to make it convert. Instead of just focusing on
building traffic, spend a portion of your time on
converting it.

If you are continually running A/B tests, good for
you! That’s the only way to maximize how many window
shoppers you convert into customers.